Category Archives: Software

What is Scorecardresearch Doing Here?

Posted on January 13, 2014 by Michael Froomkin

Excess of Democracy blog has a post about trackers on lawprof blogs. Coincidentally, I spent a couple of hours today trying to figure out why it is that gtmerix reports that discourse.net has this redirect, which both slows the site and amounts to a tracker on users:

I certainly didn’t put any of that in here on purpose. I have grepped all the code for this site and the words “scorecardresearch” and “specificclick” don’t appear anywhere in it. That means either something is inserting the code, or it is obfuscated in some way.

I can imagine three possibilities: (1) a plugin has some javascript; (2) something in the right margin; (3) a malicious code injection.

I tried disabling several of the plugins (but not all as some are essential), but nothing changed. I tried removing a couple of the most likely suspects from the right margin, but that wasn’t it. I don’t know how to look for the code injection.

Any thoughts on how best to track this down?

Posted in Discourse.net, Software | 5 Comments

A Word to the Wise: Quicken and Dropbox Don’t Mix

Posted on January 7, 2014 by Michael Froomkin

It’s not just the security issue (only somewhat ameliorated if you password protect the file), but a fundamental incompatibility that can scramble your files — apparently at any time, and without warning.

Warning signs include “Quicken cannot open the data file because it is in use by some other application” and various other error messages when you try to backup your Quicken file.

Posted in Software | 8 Comments

Odd Marketing

Posted on December 6, 2013 by Michael Froomkin

scroogled-mug-microsoft-270x167Can’t say I at all get the anti-Google marketing campaign by Microsoft running under the “Scroogled” monicker. But I do like this mug.

(Spotted via snarky story at the Inquirer.)

Posted in Software | 4 Comments

Handy Form to See if You are Victim of Adobe Password Hack

Posted on November 11, 2013 by Michael Froomkin

From Lastpass. Pass it on.

Posted in ID Cards and Identification, Software | Comments Off on Handy Form to See if You are Victim of Adobe Password Hack

Android Phone Backup Considered Dangerous

Posted on September 14, 2013 by Michael Froomkin

Michael Horowitz, Google knows nearly every Wi-Fi password in the world | Computerworld Blogs.

Oh, joy. See, if Google knows your wifi passwords (and all the other app passwords it backs up) then it can be compelled to tell them by officials bearing the right paperwork.

Android devices have defaulted to coughing up Wi-Fi passwords since version 2.2. And, since the feature is presented as a good thing, most people wouldn’t change it. I suspect that many Android users have never even seen the configuration option controlling this. After all, there are dozens and dozens of system settings to configure.

And, anyone who does run across the setting can not hope to understand the privacy implication. I certainly did not.

Specifically:

  • In Android 2.3.4, go to Settings, then Privacy. On an HTC device, the option that gives Google your Wi-Fi password is “Back up my settings”. On a Samsung device, the option is called “Back up my data”. The only description is “Back up current settings and application data”. No mention is made of Wi-Fi passwords.
  • In Android 4.2, go to Settings, then “Backup and reset”. The option is called “Back up my data”. The description says “Back up application data, Wi-Fi passwords, and other settings to Google servers”.

The good news is that if you turn it off, Google says they erase all of the data.

Posted in Software | Comments Off on Android Phone Backup Considered Dangerous

Geeky Humor

Posted on September 13, 2013 by Michael Froomkin

Well, I thought it was funny.

Posted in Software | Comments Off on Geeky Humor